crescent girl

No place accurate -- Ed's average is 8.62 (less any GB discount)

Near as dammit. Actually 5.70

Well, while my earlier statement of expectation was correct at the time of posting, since then the Premiership - despite crying out for more tracks - have seemingly closed ranks to refuse Oxford admittance to "the club". Thus, despite a wish to come back as a PL circuit, the new Cheetahs will therefore indeed now be welcomed to the "better league". I turn out to be wrong in my earlier post, and apologise. Glad to have a new, vibrant, organisation joing to CL tho.....

Virtually all your averages are incorrect. The 2022 starting figures will be calculated with all Eastbourne matches deleted. You also need to remember the GB riders' discounts.

Bomber 8.11, Leon 6.04 & Kyle 3.60. All three would qualify for any discount on offer to British riders who have raced at NDL level in the past.

And, after a handful of optimism sweeties, you might expect Bomber's average to go up a tad, too, given half his matches will be at Shielfield. A track made for his style of racing.

The announcement this morning that Kyle Bickley will be back in 2022, not just as a member of the Bandits, but to captain the Bullets too, is great news for Berwick supporters -- and good news too, for everyone looking forward to another good year of NDL competition throughout the UK.

The extra-good news in the latest announcement is the that the Bullets will still be firing, as well as the Bandits! Spring can't come quick enough........

We'll see. Remember this post.

Wrong threàd. They wont be Championship.

By mid-summer, Bomber and Leon will be virtually auromatic selections for Heats 13 and 15........ Looks like Saturday night could be quite a Party!

That is correct. The figures I quote are those these two riders will have applied against them, should they join a Championship team in 2022. All other riders' averages have been adjusted accordingly, and will hold averages which avoid any Eastbourne involvement in their figues.

The only riders with averages above 3.00 who raced for Eastbourne (but didn't go on to confirm pukka averages elsewhere after the closure) were Eddie Kennett and Kyle Newman. Ed would be 8.62 if he comes back in 2022, Kyle will be 5.16.

I think you'll find Berwick are a little more financially circumspect in such matters

Too many to mention, but not all will be serving after ten on a Tuesday.... Except maybe Wetherspoons.,.,.

Getting the bus into the city from airport will be easy, and the town will have its hat on to welcome you... Well, maybe the welcome's for Joe Biden, Macron, Erdogan, Trudeau, Boris, Prince Charles, etc and the 25,000 delegates, but..... So just walk about a fine Victorian city centre and enjoy the ambience. Plenty of restaurants and pubs, etc. As someone said, you need face-masks to go into shops, onto public transport, etc. Take a taxi to the track, cheap as chips for the short journey. Enjoy the city!

Bandits' fans being urged to vote for Rider of the Year per club website now, trophy to be presented at End of Term Party on November 6th. Tickets for party also on sale on website.

It isn't the first time a promoter has "done a runner" and left a financial mess. But when a track has been viable before the carpetbagger came to town, it can be so again under better, more-prudent stewardship. Hopefully, a responsible promoter can step up, forge a deal with the stadium ownership and BSPL, and allow speedway to continue -- perhaps at a less-ambitious level -- at Charlie Dugard's lovely little stadium in Sussex for many years........

Yes, the latter part of October has been exceptionally wet. However, there is too much hysteria over the clogged-up Championship play-off schedule. In any normal season, Championship clubs would all have been running matches from around the fourth week in March. Because of Covid, the first Championship matches were not run (at Glasgow and Scunthorpe) until May 21st. This means these clubs lost around eight dates on which league matches could have been presented -- two-thirds of their home schedule! Worse, Plymouth, Kent, Birmingham, Poole and Newcastle did not stage a home league match until June -- losing another two or three race nights. All of this was down to Covid. Not the BSPL, not clubs being guilty of calling off matches too soon (although this may have happened) and not because of any poor scheduling. As most understand, the need for a play-off schedule remains a necessary part of speedway promotion, with profitable crowds the norm (look at the Premiership finals) and any efforts to return to the old, sadly-sometimes-boring "first past the post" system wouldn't be a good idea in a time the sport needs every big attendance it can attract. The Covid pandemic has been the worst, most-disruptive and world-changing influence of our lifetime. To blame any other factor for this unseemly struggle to run off the last few meetings, in this truly exceptional year, is a senseless knee-jerk reaction. IMO

Plenty of precedent to elongate the season if weather has intervened. Edinburgh/Berwick KO Cup Final was rained off (l think) three times and finally staged on November 6th!

Grobauer's travel costs wouldnt add up to much, he was hardly ever there.....

Zach Cook was at Edinburgh on Saturday with Ben

Bomber's debut as a Berwick representative will be at Redcar tonight, alongside Leon, Jye and Spud (in his final meeting)......

What makes you think that? I've found the NDL to be an exciting, refreshing and innovative competition this season, having watched meetings at Armadale and Berwick, both standalone and as part of double-headers. The young riders involved have made giant strides since the season began on May 1st and I'm already looking forward to 2022, when there will be at least one brand-new standalone circuit applying to join the NDL. On its knees? Don't you believe it!

Always happy to have a good discussion on here.... My point is that play-offs attract people to speedway, create considerable revenue and keep the sport viable. Regarding the "top team wins the title" argument, the rules are laid down before the season, so everyone knows what's what. Taking it a stage further, what about this past weekend? Are Poland the "real" World Champions, with Denmark on the silver medal? Or were those last two races not worth the admission, or TV money alone?